This week I'm grateful for..... Scheduled Posts!

On Friday morning last week, I was due to  post up my block as part of Jane's Desperate Housewife's Quilt.  Luckily due to having to coordinate with Jane for links etc, the post had to be scheduled ahead of time.

Very good thing because Friday morning I woke up and turned my computer on to make sure the post had gone ahead as planned..... and my laptop had gone to the great LAN party in the sky.  He'd been acting a bit sick all week but Friday I was just unable to get him to turn on properly.

I've also been without my recently inherited netbook (from my hubby) because we're waiting on a new power cable which has been ordered.  My lovely hubby left his new tablet at home for me that day so I could make some contact with the outside world, but it just wasn't the same.

I'm also grateful that we're in a financial position which allowed me to go shopping on Saturday and buy a new laptop which was better than my old one.  I'd been looking for an excuse to upgrade but really couldn't justify it.  Had my laptop heard me and helped my cause?  I'll never know.

So only two days without a computer and now I'm getting used to a bigger (and higher resolution) screen and a wizz-bang new operating system (Windows7).  There's lots in there to be grateful for!

What are you grateful for this week?  Join in the fun over at Maxabella Loves

This week I'm grateful for....followers

not the kind of 'sheep' followers who don't know what to do unless you do it first, but the kind who follow blogs!

And more importantly, the commenters.  I have some lovely ladies who comment on almost all my blog posts.  I do try to reply personally to comments, but sometimes it just gets too much, and sometimes there isn't really anything more to be said than 'thanks for the comment'.

So here I am saying thank you for all the lovely comments, from the regular commenters and the sometimes commenters.  I really appreciate the words of encouragement, and it's nice to know that someone else is reading.

What's making you smile today? Go on over to Maxabella Loves and add your I'm Grateful For post to the list  then pop over to visit other bloggers who are spreading a little sunshine.

This week I'm grateful for.... Sunny Autumn Afternoons

Whilst my husband has been working from home, he's also been doing things around the house, including some work on the front yard.  We bought some new plants and did some redesigning, which meant I had to dug up some bulbs and move them.

Yesterday and today were beautiful days for being outside so today I took my gardening tools and planted the bulbs I'd dug up yesterday while hubby and daughter sat on the lawn and watched.

So this week I'm grateful for:

... Sunny Autumn days where you can get outside and do things but it's not too hot

... The pretty little lawn that we have which my husband has grown from seed and proudly mows

... And a baby who is content to sit on the grass with Daddy and stare at the big wide world, taking it all in.

Share your grateful with Maxabella Loves this week.

This week I'm grateful for....hard floors and husbands

I grew up with carpet in ever room of the house except kitchen/laundry/bathrooms.  The idea of a 'hard' floor in a family room or similar just seemed uncomfortable to me.

In our house now, we have an open plan kitchen/dining/family and we have laminate flooring right the way through.

The other night it came time to sandwich up my music quilt, and I'm so glad we have a hard floor because I am able to sticky tape the backing to the floor, then tape the batting to the floor, before finally smoothing over the quilt top.  Plus, I can push the basting pins (gently) till they hit a hard surface then push them up.

I remember a story my year 7 textiles teacher told about her quilting group who had made this beautiful quilt and laid it all out on the floor and hand basted it, only to discover they had basted it to the carpet in some areas!!  The rest of the class (who weren't really into sewing, only did the subject because it was compulsory) were horrified when she said they ended up trimming the carpet to free the quilt.

So this week I'm grateful for:

1. Hard floors

2. Basting pins

3. My husband ..... for crawling around on the floor with me and helping me layer out my big quilts - especially when I was making his coffee quilt and he did the whole thing himself under my instruction because I was 8 months pregnant and couldn't get down on the floor.

What are you grateful for this week?  Go on over to Maxabella Loves and share your love.

This week I'm grateful for....Soda Stream

I'm not a big fizzy drink fan.  I sometimes buy a 1.25L bottle now and then when we're grocery shopping, but once I open it, half the time it is flat before I've had time to finish it.  I'm just not THAT into it.

My husband drinks enough to make this a money saver, but for me, I love the fact that at any given time I can make a glass of ginger ale and not have to worry if there is one in the cupboard.  The 500ml bottles that we got for the Soda Stream are even better because that's just two glasses, which I can usually drink in the time before it goes flat.  And because we keep the plain bottles of water in the fridge ready for 'streaming', it's always cold!

YAY for modern appliances which make our lives more enjoyable.

What are you grateful for today?  Maxabella Loves is taking a short break this weekend, so you have to head over to her sister, MultipleMum at And Then There Were Four, to see what others are up to, and add your own link.

This week I'm grateful for....online shopping!

Okay so I'm being a bit shallow this week... but I love it!
I have been able to source fabric for a total of four quilts from three different stores, and am able to compare across all of them at the same time.  Not only looking for a good price, but comparing colours and patterns before I commit to buying anything.  It would be hard to do that at three bricks and mortar shops.

So what have I bought?

From BugFabric.com I got all I need for the dinosaur quilt as well as a few extras for the puppy quilt, and the border fabric for my Birdie Stitches.





From Fat Quarter Shop I got the Kona solids I need for the puppy quilt, and Kona Colour Card, plus I got the white fabric I need for the stitcheries on Tail Feathers.

And finally I will get from The Quilter's Store the other bits I need to complete Tail Feathers (border, binding and some applique bits).  I don't think I'll be starting this quilt very soon but the Honey Buns I have for it are from the Clementine range by Me and My Sister (for Moda) and I want to get the yardage before it is no longer available.  I haven't clicked 'checkout' yet because I want some discussion with my creative consultant.

All this and I didn't have to pester my husband to drive me across town ;)

What are you grateful for this week?

I'm grateful for...

Okay so it might sound like I'm pandering, but every week now I spend many spare minutes here and there trying to think of what I'm going to be grateful for that weekend so I can blog it.  I realise how many things I have to be grateful for, small, big, silly, personal, public, all sorts of things that I wouldn't want to be without.  Many of them seem too small to list here (but I guess that's the point) and some seem so big that they should be obvious (again.. that's probably the point), but these are things which could otherwise go for granted.

I'm going through some trying times at the moment, adjusting to being a new mum still, and discovering more of myself every day, so it's really helpful to think of the things I have, that often get overlooked, and be grateful.

What are you grateful for this week?  See what others are grateful for over at Maxabella Loves

I'm grateful for...

The way my baby's skin feels when she has just woken up from a nap.

It makes me remember why I wanted this, and makes me forget about the hours spent crying (both her and me), the late nights, the early mornings, the dirty nappies, and all the things I don't get done because I have a special little girl to take care of.

Go to Maxbella Loves and see what other people are grateful for this week.  Share what you are grateful for and add your name to the list.

I'm grateful for...

my slightly muddy laundry and the wet stain on the ceiling in the foyer.

Yesterday evening we had a huge storm passed through Melbourne.  All our westerly facing windows leaked.  The sewing room got a puddle on the window sill, the study and the nursery got a patch of wet carpet as well, and the laundry floor got flooded (a littled crept into the hallway carpet).  Three tiles on the roof came out and so water got into our ceiling at the front of the house.  Luckily my husband got up and replaced them prior to the overnight rain.  The BBQ got flipped over and is probably a lost cause.  Some of our fencing has blown over to a slight angle.

I am grateful that we were one of the luckiest in our street (to my knowledge).

The next door neighbours had a flooded hallway and water running down the pantry walls, as well as their 16' trampoline doing a spectacular jump over the back fence.  Neighbours across the road had half their ceiling collapse in.  I can't imagine the disbelief I would feel if I woke in the morning to find that in my living room.  Of course they would have heard it before they saw it.  Plasterboard and ceiling batts covered their lounges, kitchen and TV.

I am grateful that all the clean up we have is a couple of loads of washing that was on the floor of the laundry, and the towels and clothes which got wet last night during the clean up, and we might have to have a metre of ceiling replaced.

What are you grateful for?  Jump over to Maxabella Loves to see what others are grateful for.